SAGA Challenge

So, while the Vikings are doing their homework I felt that the table top would need some additional small terrain to make their imminent invasion just a little bit more challenging. (My son has my number – and also some extremely fortunate dice throws – and so anything to slow down my impending defeat is to be welcome).

So, what do we need?  More trees for sure; some haystacks for the “look” of the thing; some wattle fences and some walls? Probably all of these. And of course somewhere to live! (The houses will come later).

So to start I made some simple hay stacks based around old wine corks, DAS putty and some Mantic round bases.

The size of the corks was too large, so after cutting them down to a more reasonable size, they were glued to the bases and once set, DAS was applied in small amounts at a time. I probably got the actual shape of these things wrong, but hopefully they will have the right “look” once they’re finished.

While the DAS was still slightly malleable, I used an old toothbrush to etch some groves into the DAS to represent the straw-like nature of the stack.

Once fully dry (I waited overnight) I gave them a grey undercoat, then successive layers of acrylic paint (the cheap £-store variety). Base on Yellow Ochre and building up with yellows and browns with final highlights of pure yellow.

These aren’t perfect, but once on a suitable hayfield I think they’ll pass.

On to Trees.  The core structure is twisted wire. This is a well known technique, so I won’t go into detail.  The only wire I could get was a bit thicker than ideal (I’ll try to get some florist’s wire as I think that’s a far better option) but you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

I made five tree shops to start with and made some typical tree shapes, which were then glued to 60mm bases with a hot glue gun. (I have some multi-tree bases that have 60mm holes, so I can group 2/3 trees together). I then applied a thick layer of PvA glue to the wire format and dusted in some fine sand.  This creates a texture on which to paint later. The bases were also treated with a sand mix of different sizes.

This was followed by spray painting them black and subsequent dry brushing of brown and grey/white.

The base of the trees were given a coating of random forest scatter comprising tried tea leaves and herbal tea colored shades of green.

Foliage is a different matter altogether. I don’t have access to model shops, so instead I glued random pieces of wire wool to the branches.  These were then painted with a black spray can, carefully avoiding recoloring the truck or branches.

Once dried, the shapes were painted with artist acrylics in greens and yellows (other leaf colours are available).

I will later varnish them with a Matt varnish as I think they’re just a bit too bright.

I’ll update on the walls and fences asap.

Happy gaming